“If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write.”

Stephen King may not be the world’s greatest literary genius, but he got it right with this comment. More than this, though, reading regularly is one of the best ways to improve your own vocabulary, knowledge, and understanding of the world you live in. For all the opinions that I hear voiced every day, it pains me that more of my conversations aren’t about books.

In that light, on this page I’ll maintain a list of books that I’m reading or have recently read. I welcome any and all comments on the books listed here, as well as suggestions of any other books or writers that you think I might enjoy. Highlighted titles indicate links to my own reviews on this site.

(Update: Sorry, comments closed due to excessive spam.)

Currently:

• On Food & Cooking, Harold McGee

In 2012:

1. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell 
2. Foundation, Isaac Asimov 
3. Foundation and Empire, Isaac Asimov
4. Second Foundation, Isaac Asimov
5. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
6. The Constant Gardener, John le Carré
7. The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi

In 2011:

1. Room, Emily Donoghue
2. Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
3. SuperFreakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
4. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
5. Dog Blood, David Moody
6. Number9dream, David Mitchell
7. Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert
8. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
9. The Influencing Machine, Brooke Gladstone
10. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
11. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
12. Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart
13. Consider Phlebas, Iain M. Banks 
14. Ghetto at the Center of the World, Gordon Mathews 
15. The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco 
16. 11/22/63, Stephen King 
17. The Prague Cemetery, Umberto Eco 

In 2010:

1. Freedom™, Daniel Suarez
2. Wetlands, Charlotte Roche
3. The Angel’s Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
4. Travels in the Scriptorium, Paul Auster
5. The Unnamed, Joshua Ferris
6. Q & A, Vikas Swarup
7. Tell-All, Chuck Palahniuk
8. The Passage, Justin Cronin
9. Sleepless, Charlie Huston
10. How I Became a Famous Novelist, Steve Hely
11. Less Than Zero, Bret Easton Ellis
12. Imperial Bedrooms, Bret Easton Ellis
13. Kraken, China Miéville
14. Lowboy, John Wray
15. A Nail Through the Heart, Timothy Hallinan
16. Bambi vs. Godzilla, David Mamet
17. Dracula, Bram Stoker
18. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
19. The Turn of the Screw, Henry James
20. The Shining, Stephen King
21. Freedom, Jonathan Franzen
22. Night Shift, Stephen King
23. Patient Zero, Jonathan Maberry
24. Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel
25. Zero History, William Gibson
26. A Visit From the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
27. Financial Lives of the Poets, Jess Walter

In 2009:

1. The Terror, Dan Simmons
2. Lush Life, Richard Price
3. Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk
4. Getting Things Done, David Allen
5. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
7. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
8. Sacred Games, Vikram Chandra
9. Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
10. City of Tiny Lights, Patrick Neate
11. Daemon, Daniel Suarez
12. Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
13. Beat the Reaper, Josh Bazell
14. The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, Charlie Huston
15. Hater, David Moody
16. Beloved, Toni Morrison
17. Netherland, Joseph O’Neill
18. Neuromancer, William Gibson
19. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
20. The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Tales, H.P. Lovecraft
21. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
22. Infected, Scott Sigler
23. The Road, Cormac McCarthy
24. Parasite Eve, Hideaki Sena
25. Loop, Koji Suzuki
26. Drood, Dan Simmons
27. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
28. The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
29. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
30. Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Andersen
31. The Body, Hanef Kureishi
32. Pygmy, Chuck Palahniuk
33. The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood
34. Under the Dome, Stephen King
35. On Writing Well, William Zinsser
36. Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli

In 2008:

1. The Zero, Jess Walter
2. Omnivore, Piers Anthony
3. The War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
6. Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006, Brian Greene, ed.
7. The Coming Plague, Laurie Garrett
8. Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
9. Microbe, Alan P. Zelicoff, M.D., and Michael Bellomo
10. Moonraker, Ian Fleming
11. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
12. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
13. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
14. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
15. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
16. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
17. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
18. A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle
19. The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas (Richard Pevear, transl.)
20. Microcosm, Carl Zimmer
21. Twenty Years After, Alexandre Dumas
22. The Dumas Club (nee The Club Dumas), Arturo Perez-Reverte
23. That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis
24. A Year in the Merde, Stephen Clarke
25. Anathem, Neal Stephenson
26. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel
27. Crime, Irvine Welsh

In 2007:

1. World War Z, Max Brooks
2. Next, Michael Crichton
3. The Ruins, Scott Smith
4. DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics, Klaus Janson
5. Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson (SUCKED)
6. Purity of Blood, Arturo Perez-Reverte
7. Crazy Gary’s Mobile Disco, Gary Owen
8. Waiting for Snow in Havana, Carlos Eire
9. A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah (GREAT)
10. On Writing Well, William Zinsser
11. What Is the What, Dave Eggers
12. The Abortionist’s Daughter, Elisabeth Hyde
13. Carry Me Down, M.J. Hyland
14. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
15. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, Richard P. Feynman
16. A Spot of Bother, Mark Haddon
17. Parasite Rex, Carl Zimmer
18. Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey, Chuck Palahniuk
19. Dune, Frank Herbert
20. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman
21. If You Liked School, You’ll Love Work, Irvine Welsh
22. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
23. Spook Country, William Gibson
24. House of Sand and Fog, Andre Dubus III
25. Ideas into Words, Elise Hancock

In 2006:

1. Lunar Park, Bret Easton Ellis
2. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
4. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
5. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, Umberto Eco
6. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas (AWESOME)
7. Thank You For Smoking, Christopher Buckley
8. All Tomorrow’s Parties, William Gibson
9. Cell, Stephen King
10. Company, Max Barry
11. The Jungle, Upton Sinclair (STRONG)
12. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, Ann Rice (SO DULL)
13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke (FUN)
14. The Fortress of Solitude, Jonathan Lethem (PRETENTIOUS)
15. The Harmony Silk Factory, Tash Aw
16. We the Media, Dan Gillmor
17. The Alienist, Caleb Carr
18. JPod, Douglas Coupland (PRETTY OK!)
19. Londonstani, Gautam Malkani
20. Terrorist, John Updike
21. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison (POWERFUL)
22. The World is Flat (2e), Thomas L. Friedman (OVERRATED)
23. Nation of Rebels, Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter
24. The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs, Irvine Welsh
25. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (REALLY GOOD)
26. Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, Faïza Guèna
27. Adverbs, Daniel Handler
28. The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
29. The Road, Cormac McCarthy (AMAZING)
30. The Futurist, James P. Othmer
31. Making Comics, Scott McCloud
32. The Keep, Jennifer Egan
33. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
34. Captain Alatriste, Arturo Perez-Reverte
35. The Town That Forgot How to Breathe, Kenneth J. Harvey
36. Nick Adams Stories, Ernest Hemmingway